Nurturing and Being Nurtured

I intended to start my morning with a workout, but when my younger daughter crawled into bed with me and sleepily said, “Will you snuggle with me, Mama?”, those plans abruptly and happily changed. She curled up in my arms and drifted back to sleep for another hour, while I just held her and savored this sweet moment. Feeling her chest rise and fall with each breath and the beat of her heart reminded me of when I used to rock her to sleep in my arms when she was an infant. It was a sweet moment that I cherished indeed. She and her older sister seem to grow before my eyes, and time seems to move at a faster pace each year. So, moments like the one I shared with my little girl early this morning reminded me to not take this time with her for granted, for there will come a day when she no longer will start her Saturday mornings snuggling with me in the comfort and safety of my cozy bed, and I also will not always be able to honor the requests she makes of me. To be able to begin my day by giving her time to snuggle together was truly the best thing I could possibly do today, and I know it made a positive difference to her, because when she was ready to get up and start her day, she hugged me tightly and said, “I wish we could snuggle every morning”. I do, too, actually.

Normally, when I have to change my workout plans, that means that exercising is postponed until another day. I promised myself and my daughters that I would exercise today, and I knew that the best thing that I could do would be to keep my promised to all three of us. This afternoon, under the watchful eye of my personal trainer, aka my older daughter, I worked out for an hour doing another circuit training program that left me feeling hot, sweaty, sore, and proud of myself. It felt great physically to get my heart rate up and feel my muscles working hard, and it felt just as good mentally and emotionally to clear my mind and to honor the promise I made. In order to be able to nurture others, I have to nurture myself, and today, I did just that and felt good about being able to balance nurturing with being nurtured.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my blog and for your kind words. It definitely was worth it, and I feel very fortunate that my ex-husband and I have such a healthy and positive relationship.

Thank God. My wife and I wrote the Equal Parenting Law that most states use as a basis for equal parenting, defining the best interest of the child. I’m always thankful to hear another positive outcome from a bad circumstance.